"The illogic and wastefulness of these moves leave conspiracy theories, that Paulson was simply out to raid the Federal coffers and distribute as much as possible to his industry cronies, having more explanatory power other rationales. And the fact that Paulson from the get-go felt it crucial to be outside any review process signals bad intent."

"The U.S. Treasury paid “substantially above” market value for the financial assets purchased through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the TARP oversight panel appointed by the U.S. Congress.

"Elizabeth Warren told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that the Treasury paid $254 billion in 2008 to financial institutions through the TARP program but received only $176 billion worth of stocks and warrants. This estimate was extrapolated from an analysis of 10 transactions, Warren said.

"Congress created the $700 billion TARP program to unfreeze the credit markets and shore up the U.S. banking system.

"The Treasury Department has failed to explain the reasons for the overpayments, even though some of its policy objectives could have led it to pay more than the stocks and warrants were worth at the time, Warren said."

Can you let the capitalists near the public treasury and expect anything else? Could you expect them to say they are committed to the free market, free enterprise and don't want anything as tainted as free government money?

My goodness, if you can't trust your local capitalist who can you trust?

Arf